


A Slippery Slope

by Msynergy



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-06 02:19:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5399183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Msynergy/pseuds/Msynergy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Can I complain about nature now?”</p>
<p>“Varric–”</p>
<p>He, as always, ignored the warning in her voice.</p>
<p>“Oh c’mon, Seeker, I’d say falling into a muddy sinkhole in the Emerald Graves allows for it!”</p>
<p>“Varric, I will suffocate you in said mud if you do not shut up and help me reach this vine!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Slippery Slope

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Don’t own them, never will. Just playing in the sandbox.

“Can I complain about nature _now_?”

“Varric–”

He, as always, ignored the warning in her voice.

“Oh c’mon, Seeker, I’d say falling into a muddy sinkhole in the Emerald Graves allows for it!”

“Varric, I will suffocate you in said mud if you do not shut up and help me reach this vine!”

“Hey! Evie and Dorian are finding some rope as we speak, why the rush?”

A lesser man would have shriveled under the glare he received, he didn’t know what it said about him that he’d become immune.

“Help me up. Then I can reach that vine.”

“Seeker–”

“I said help not talk, Varric!”

He sighed, rolling his eyes when her back turned before sloshing up and intertwining his fingers to create a step.

Quickly she placed her foot, bounced on the other, and stepped up in his hands fast to grab at the vine.

She got a good grip, but it snapped as she tugged, and mud slapped against his back as she used him to break her fall.

“This is why I thought we should wait,” he wheezed, pushing her off and trying to scrap the sludge off his jacket and hair.

More mud covered just as much of her, and he was grateful he’d taken Bianca off his back to rest against a less slimy patch of their prison. But as he scrapped off the last of the mud he could reach, Varric realized that Cassandra had yet to reply to his verbal jab with a punch of her own.

Then he heard the sound of something hard meeting soft earth.

“Seeker?”

Her back was to him, and she didn’t answer, punching again and smearing more mud against her gauntlets. Something cold settled in his stomach, and he rose quickly, reaching her side with a frown.

“Seeker? What are you–”

The question died on his tongue at the sight of tears streaming down her face.

“Whoa, hey now. Seek-Cassandra, c’mon, Dorian and Evie will be back any minute and–”

He’d reached out to touch her shoulder automatically, trying to reassure, but the second his fingers brushed her armor she spun on her heel. He winced, ready for her fist to connect as her arms came around his shoulders instead, pulling him in as close as their armor would allow, her mud and tear streaked face buried in his hair.

He froze at the contact, but then a memory flashed – Adamant, the Fade, the graveyard, all their greatest fears laid bare. He’d gotten black-out drunk after that particular adventure for a number of reasons, yet no amount of Bull’s Qunari brain-killer booze had erased the words on those stones. Most had made too much sense, struck too close, his especially, but Cassandra’s–

_Helplessness._

He remembered thinking it impossible that the Seeker could’ve ever felt that way in her entire life, but now, as her tears soaked his hair, Varric realized his error. A sharp pang registered in his chest, and his arms came around her to return the embrace. Her grip tightened, and he was close enough to feel every haggard breath leave her chest and skate across his scalp.

It should have been awkward, them like this, especially with everything between them, but it wasn’t. Perhaps he should have been more concerned about that thought, but he was too busy focusing on how she relaxed under his hands, how even in her armor she seemed so small, so fragile under his fingers.

“It’s alright,” he whispered, “You’re alright.”

“Hey! Guys! We got the rope!”

Evie’s voice ricocheted down the hole, and Cassandra jumped from him so fast Varric had to wonder if the entire embrace was some kind of waking dream. But dwarves didn’t dream, and as he grabbed Bianca and followed Cassandra up the rope to freedom, he only had eyes for the Seeker as their friends checked them over.

“I say, Varric, did you and Cassandra mud-wrestle while we were gone?”

The innuendo practically dripped from Dorian’s voice, but he didn’t take the bait.

“Enough, Sparkler.”

“But–”

“I said enough! Let’s get back to camp already so I can clean up!”

The look shared between the mage and Inquisitor wasn’t missed, but he pushed forward with Cassandra close behind him. Her eyes were focused on some point he knew he’d never see, and he had to make a fist to stop his hand from reaching out.

Varric did get to clean up, but the mud washed away far easier than the feeling of Cassandra Pentaghast in his arms.  


End file.
